Struggles of Research
by alex8h
Summary: Rose is just trying to get through Sixth Year as the top student in her year. Scorpius Malfoy and his mysterious side project are the one thing preventing her from reaching that.
1. Chapter 1

Rose Weasley was on a mission.

"You know," Her cousin Lily gasped out from behind her. "You could slow down a little."

Lily Potter was a sweet girl; very pretty but not arrogant, always there to lend a helping hand, had the best gossip in the castle, and was big on family (weren't they all though). But, Rose thought as she quickly scanned the titles on the shelves before moving on to the next row of bookshelves, she just didn't really _get_ it. Sure, Lily studied well enough and took pride in her schoolwork. She was certainly better off than either of her brothers who spent their time solely on the Quidditch pitch. But Lily, along with the rest of her large family, didn't feel that need, that urge to absorb all she could and to make her work be the absolute best it could be. As long as she got an O or E, Lily was satisfied. Rose however wasn't appeased until every assignment was perfection. Though this lead to many sleepless nights (such as this one), she got the respect of her teachers and the gratification of a job well done.

"I don't understand," she said with a furrowed brow. "It was supposed to be in Section A under Subsection 14 with all the other authors starting with the letter _G_."

"Maybe someone else checked it out," Lily said, still trying to catch her breath.

"This is the Restricted Section," Rose huffed out, frustrated. "There shouldn't _be_ anyone else checking this book out, much less knowing it exists in the first place."

"What exactly did you say this book was for again?"

"Nothing, just for a Charms essay," Rose lied.

"Yeah, right." Lily snorted. "Why'd you need to sneak in here in the middle of the night then? You can tell me; I'm your cousin!. After all, you trusted me enough to bring me along."

She smiled winsomely. Rose wasn't won over.

"I didn't bring you. You caught me leaving the common room and forced me to let you come," Rose said irritably. Though she had to admit it was a lot less scary roaming around the castle at night with someone else along with her.

"Whatever, if it was actually checked out, then Madame Pince probably has the records," Lily suggested.

"True, but you know she keeps that under lock and key."

"Don't worry, I'll take care of that," Lily reassured her and then yawned. "So can we get out here now?"

Rose chewed her lip but eventually shrugged her assent and they headed back to Gryffindor Tower together.

* * *

"So what did you say your plan was again?" Rose whispered to Lily as they spied on Madame Pince's position at her desk from around the corner of a bookcase.

"I didn't, you just have to follow my lead."

"What? I can't go into this without knowing you actually have some sort of plan-" Rose began to argue until a long shadow fell over her.

"Excuse me, do you mind?"

Rose and Lily looked up from their positions crouched near floor. There, in all of his intimidating 6'2" glory, stood Scorpius Malfoy. Looking down at them. Or more specifically, directly at Rose.

After a few moments of silent gaping from the two of them, he raised a perfectly arched eyebrow and nodded towards the bookcase. "You're in front of the book I need."

Rose was shaken out of her momentary lapse in speaking by an elbow to the ribs from Lily. A very _sharp_ elbow, she might add.

"Oh, sorry," she managed to get out after sending a glare to Lily. She shifted a little to the right and Scorpius deftly grabbed a book next to her head, brushing her cheek with his long fingers.

"No problem," he replied and immediately turned around and left.

"So hot," Lily sighed, eyeing his rear as he walked away.

Rose nodded in agreement, swallowing hard.

"Anyway, just stay here until I give you the signal that it's all clear," Lily commanded, snapping back to attention.

"Wait, what's the signal-" But Lily had already left.

Rushing into action with no plan. How typically Gryffindor. Though Rose was one of the biggest supporters of her house, she sometimes privately wondered how she ended up there instead of Ravenclaw.

She peeked around the bookcase and saw Lily heading towards Madame Pince's desk.

"Madame Pince!" Lily walked up to the old librarian, her tone seemingly urgent.

"I thought I banned you from this library, Ms. Potter! After the incident with the fireworks-" Madame Pince rose threateningly from her seat.

"Oh no, Madame, that was James, my brother. I assure you, I had nothing to do with that horrific accident." Lily looked as innocent as possible.

Rose grinned. Lily had in fact been the mastermind of that particular prank and had set up James as the bait so she could escape without suspect, a fact that James had yet to fully forgive his younger sister for.

"Actually, I wanted to let you know about some people right now behind the stacks. They're not exactly behaving appropriately."  
Madame Pince narrowed her eyes. "Are they eating near the books again? No matter how many times I tell them, none of them ever learn to have respect-"

"No, they don't have food, Madame." Lily leaned in, widened her eyes dramatically and spoke in a hushed tone that still carried across the room, making sure everyone's eyes were on her. "They appeared to be… having sexual relations, if you know what I mean."

"Fornication in my library?" Madame Pince all but shrieked and flew out from behind her desk towards the back of the library. Lily was right behind her, shooting a wink at Rose as she passed by.

Rose quickly got up and ran behind the back of the desk. Luckily the signout sheet was right on top of the desk. She quickly scanned it and just as quickly grit her teeth in frustration. No one had checked out her book.

* * *

"Well?" Lily said excitedly as she made her way to the back of the library where Rose was waiting.

"Nope," she sighed.

"Aw man." She frowned. "Don't worry, Rose, we'll find it eventually."  
Rose just shrugged and nodded along at Lily continued her reassurances as they started heading to the Great Hall.

While she tuned out Lily's new topic of deciding which dress to wear to the party next Friday, she saw Scorpius Malfoy in a hidden corner of the library, diligently working on some assignment with his bookbag next to him filled to the brim with books. Specifically, a certain book with a purple cover that just so happened to look exactly like the book Rose needed.

"Um, hello? Rose?"  
Rose suddenly realized she had stopped walking once she spotted the book.

"Oh, you go ahead. I just remember another book I need for my Defense essay so I'll catch up to you in a few minutes," she said nervously.

"If you're sure." Lily eyed her suspiciously but thankfully didn't question her and left.

"Malfoy," Rose called out, walking toward him in what she hoped was an intimidating manner.

He looked up, startled. "Weasley," he acknowledged her. "Can I help you?"

"You have my book," she huffed out, crossing her arms.

"I beg your pardon?" Scorpius seemed a bit amused and unfortunately not at all impressed.

"The purple one, right there in your bag." She pointed at it. "You didn't even check it out of the library; you stole it."

Scorpius stared at her for a moment.

"Yes, Weasley, because it would have been perfectly alright for a Malfoy to have taken out _The Dark Arts: Practical Applications_ and have it on record as well. No red flags raised in the system with that." He smiled humorlessly.

Rose's face turned red. Right, she hadn't thought of that.

"Better question, what do you need with it?"

Rose was beginning to see that maybe it was for the best that she wasn't in Ravenclaw after all since she hadn't actually thought this far ahead.

"Well, why do you have it?" she tried to deflect the question.

"Tell you what, Rose." Scorpius leaned across the table until he was just inches away from her face. Rose tried not to flinch. "You tell me what you need this for and then I might consider lending it to you."

He quickly gathered his things and started to leave, tossing out over his shoulder, "But until then, I guess you'll just have to handle disappointment".

And Rose was left with nothing but a dropped jaw, flushed cheeks, and still no book.


	2. Chapter 2

It wasn't fair, Rose thought bitterly. How could he just sit there looking as cool and unbothered as usual while she was a mess?

It had been three days since she had confronted Scorpius in the library and had lost control of the situation so embarrassingly, which meant three days lost on her research. And it definitely showed in her disastrous hair and bags under her eyes.

Meanwhile across the Great Hall, Scorpius smoothly ran a hand through his artfully messy hair (that had probably taken an hour or so to achieve and looked great unlike Rose's actually messy hair) and brushed it out of his eyes with the grace and looks of a model. He didn't even have the decency to appear the slightest bit worried that she knew his secret of having the book.

"Um, Rose? You're staring at Malfoy and stabbing your pudding again."

Lily's tentative voice brought Rose out of her daydream.

"Whoops." Rose forced out a chuckle.

"Am I right in assuming that Malfoy and the stabbing are related since you've done this like five times in the past days?" Lily questioned, raising an eyebrow. "Though I don't know what he's done to you, except maybe gracing all of our lives with his looks and intelligence."

Rose gritted her teeth. "He's not that smart." Though she couldn't really argue against the former.

Lily shot her a skeptical look but wisely chose not to further antagonize her cousin who was rapidly appearing unhinged.

Albus was not quite so perceptive. "Are you kidding me? He's probably the smartest in our grade other than you. Didn't Slughorn tell him last class that he has some of the most natural Potions talent he's ever seen?" he said through a mouthful of pie. "And his Quidditch strategy is brilliant too-"

"Yes, well it doesn't exactly take a genius just to follow instructions to make a potion," Rose snapped. "Besides, Slughorn sucks up to everyone."

"Yeah, but he said that Malfoy was even smarter than my dad. You know he means it then," Albus reminded her. "Besides, he's taking seven NEWTs. No one else is doing that."

"I'm taking seven NEWTs too," Rose said, feeling slightly calmer.

"Oh, then he must be taking eight. I just know that it's one more than what you're taking- ow, Lily, stop kicking me."

Rose felt her eye twitch. "Alright, I'm just going to go to Transfiguration now." She decided, standing up.

This was ridiculous, she concluded as she made her way to the classroom. Scorpius Malfoy was just another average student who was probably in over his head with that book. He probably just didn't want to give it to her to avoid admitting that he couldn't handle the contents of it. Though Rose couldn't deny that she was curious with what he actually was doing with it, it wasn't enough to make her want to reveal her project to him in return, even if it was to get the book.

Rose had just solidified her plan of action upon entering the Transfiguration classroom when she saw the object of her plotting already sitting at a desk there.

"Weasley," Scorpius tilted his head in acknowledgement, a small smile playing at his lips. Rose was suddenly conscious of the damage that three sleepless nights had done to her and resolved to look more put together in front of him next time.

"Something funny, Malfoy?" Rose attempted to walk to her desk looking unaffected and managed to trip twice on the way and literally fall into her seat.

Scorpius's smile turned into a full blown grin, though he thankfully didn't comment on Rose's complete lack of coordination or red face. "Just impressed that your stalking of me has given up any pretense of subtlety at this point."

"I haven't been stalking you!" Rose's eyes grew wide.

"Oh, so that person who's been glaring at me all throughout every meal in the Great Hall isn't you? And the redhead who followed me to Quidditch practice and back to the Slytherin common room yesterday and tried to duck behind pillars wasn't you either?" Scorpius asked innocently, his blue eyes full of mirth.

Rose was pretty sure that the best course of action was to keep her mouth shut since denial at that point would have just been embarrassing. She wasn't going to apologize for trying to obtain some information about her enemy however.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm impressed you even thought of reconnaissance. I would have probably done the same. It's quite Slytherin of you, really. Though perhaps without some of the… finesse we're known for." It wasn't a grin he had, it was a smirk, Rose decided. A full-on smug, evil, little Slytherin-like smirk.

"Please, don't insult me." Rose raised her chin haughtily. "As if I would ever partake in any activity remotely associated with your house."  
"Hmmm, no, I think you're right." Scorpius said thoughtfully. "It was probably your Gryffindor foolhardiness that led to you trying to figure me out, most likely without any thought going into your plan considering how sloppily it was executed. And here I thought you of all people in that house were at least above that unfortunate trait, along with being easy to rile up."

"Hey!" Rose exclaimed, unable to act apathetic any longer. "Gryffindors happen to have great plans with lots of thought!" She tried to ignore the fact that she had thought the same thing when Lily rushed into battle with Madame Pince.

"And I'm not easy to rile up…" Rose trailed off once she realized how loud her voice had gotten in her passionate defense of her house. There was that infamous Malfoy smirk again.

"What about a new deal?" Rose offered. "I don't tell you about why I need the book, you don't tell me about why you need it. That way I can borrow the book without any trust issues on both sides."  
"So I'm out of both the book and on any information as to why you would need this?" Scorpius arched a skeptical eyebrow. "Not about to happen, sweetheart."

Rose scowled and was about to argue back when the door to the classroom opened and other students started taking their seats.

Scorpius settled into his seat and opened his textbook, completely ignoring Rose again.

Rose narrowed her eyes. He left her no other option. Really he was bringing it on himself with his stubbornness. If Scorpius Malfoy wouldn't give her The Dark Arts: Practical Applications then she would just have to steal it.


	3. Chapter 3

"Lily," Rose hissed, trying to get her cousin's attention. "Lily, I know where the book is."

Since Scorpius had refused to give her the book for the second time in a row and Rose had concluded that the only way she could get what she wanted was to steal it, she had thought of little else since, intent on perfecting this heist. There would be no way it could go wrong, at least not by Scorpius's standards. She'd show him finesse and intense planning in her totally and completely perfectly thought out scheme, Rose thought, frustrated.

A small part of her slyly questioned why she even cared whether or not Scorpius was impressed with her plan; after all, if all went accordingly, he'd only be there to witness the end result, not the complicated road it took to get there. However, the greater part of Rose that took after her father emotionally, much to the chagrin of her mother, ignored the minority that was questioning her intentions toward Malfoy and shut it down to deal with on another day.

For now, she would just focus on her plan, one step at a time. And step one included recruiting Lily, who knew everything there was to know about everyone in the castle.

"That's great, Rose, but I'm a little busy here. Can't we talk later?" Lily said, not waiting for an answer before turning around to continue her conversation with three other fourth year girls. "And then he was like, 'No, you're the prettiest one' and then I was like, duh-"

"No, you don't understand," Rose said impatiently, trying to keep her voice down lest she be overheard. Though she kind of doubted it due to the bright chatter typically characteristic of the Gryffindor common room in the late afternoons. "I have to steal it."

Lily ignored her, flipping her long red hair back as she nodded in agreement to whatever flattery one of the other girls was spewing toward her.

Rose sighed, knowing the only way she'd be able to get her cousin's attention at this point. "It involves Scorpius Malfoy."

"That is so right, Patricia - WHAT?" Lily interrupted herself with a hugely over-dramatic gasp. "Sorry, girls, my cousin needs me. Weasley family business and all that," she added when the other girls started to protest.

Lily grabbed Rose's arm and pulled her out of the common room and up to her dormitory, kicking out the two other girls who were already in there.

"Um, I think that girl was about to get in the shower," Rose said hesitantly, eyeing one girl who was kicked out wearing just a towel.

"She's fine," Lily waved off her concerns and leaned in with wide eyes. "So there _is_ something going on between you and Scorpius Malfoy?" she demanded, looking far too excited in Rose's opinion.

"Ok, first of all, let go of my arm; I think you've giving me claw marks." Rose winced as she extracted her arm from Lily's death grip. "Second, there is nothing going between us."  
Lily's shoulders visibly drooped. "Darn. Just when I thought you were getting interesting. Kidding!" she added, seeing Rose's eyes narrow.

"Scorpius has the book I need and isn't letting me borrow it so now I need to steal it." Rose scowled briefly but looked back to Lily with a beaming smile, though she was pretty sure that Lily wouldn't need any sucking up to in order to join her. "I was hoping my favorite cousin would help me with this?"

"Whatever you need," Lily said immediately with a grin. "I'm so in. Not to mention I haven't seen the Slytherin dorms yet. I've always wondered what Andrew Nott's room looked like," she said with a sigh. "Good thing he's in the same dorm as Scorpius!"

Rose laughed. Lily was already fulfilling her role perfectly without even knowing it. Being such a social butterfly led to her knowing things that were essential to Rose, such as who Scorpius's roommates were and what their schedules were so that she could figure out a time to sneak in when they were all out.

"So what's the plan?" Lily asked.

"Well, I still have a few people left to ask," Rose said with a mysterious smile.

* * *

"There he is, over near the mashed potatoes," Lily said, craning her neck to get a better look at the Hufflepuff table.

Rose peeked over and immediately despaired. "The one with a finger up his nose?" she asked hopelessly. "Oh no, he just wiped it off on his plate!" she wailed.

"What? Ew, no." Lily wrinkled her nose. "The one with those muggle things in his ears. What do you call them again?"

"I think Grandpa called them headphones," Rose said absently, infinitely happier now that the nose-picker was definitely not part of the the equation. "So who is he anyway?"

"That is Adam Daniels," Lily said with an air of satisfaction of someone who has uncovered a great secret. "Sixth year Hufflepuff muggleborn. He's the one you go to for things to sneak into the castle from the outside, obviously specializing in muggle items, though he's good for other stuff too. But he also can get you information for a price."

"Aren't _you_ supposed to be my information person?" Rose was so far not very impressed with Lily's reconnaissance.

"I can get you information on people," Lily clarified. "He can get you everything else."

"Like what?"  
"Like the passwords to every house's dormitories. Such as the Slytherin password," Lily looked at Rose meaningfully. "Sound like something useful to you?"

"Ah." Rose looked over at the Hufflepuff more appreciatively. "Well then, I guess we'd better go have a chat with him then."

The two exchanged grins and got up from the Gryffindor table to sit across from Daniels at the Hufflepuff table. He didn't look up from the little rectangle the headphones were connected to.

"I think that's what they call a telephone," Rose whispered to Lily and then raised her voice to get his attention. "Um, excuse me?"

No reaction.

"Hello?" Lily tried, waving her hand in front of his face. "Adam?"

Nothing.

Rose was beginning to become uncomfortable from the stares around them at the awkward scene they were making. "Do something!" she whispered to Lily.

Lily huffed, clearly frustrated, and reached out to pull out one of his headphones when his hand shot up and grabbed her wrist before she could.

Adam Daniels frowned, glaring at Lily with hazel eyes that did not look happy to see them. "You know it's considered quite rude in muggle culture to just pull out someone's headphones," he said calmly.

Lily turned bright red. Rose squirmed uncomfortably in her seat.

"Right, sorry about that," she started. "We were just told that you were the person to see for-"

"Shhh," he exclaimed, looking at Rose as though she were an idiot. "Do you want everyone in the school to know what you're up to?"

"Um, no?"

Adam Daniels rolled his eyes, released Lily's wrist and took out his headphones from his ears.

"Finally," Lily muttered, drawing her arm back.

"Come with me," he commanded, briefly ruffling his dark hair as he strode away from the Hufflepuff table.

"Wow," Lily said, blinking rapidly.

"Intense," Rose agreed as they walked three steps behind him out the Great Hall, feeling Scorpius Malfoy's eyes trained on her back with each step she took.


	4. Chapter 4

"Take a seat." Adam gestured towards a row of dusty seats. Rose looked around the empty classroom dubiously. Daniels had taken her and Lily to the fourth floor to a classroom that was no longer used, which showed its abandonment in the cobwebs and rat droppings around them.

"I think I'll stand," she said with Lily nodding vigorously in agreement next to her. "Are you sure this is a secure location?"

Adam shot her a disdainful look. "Of course," he sniffed arrogantly, an action Rose wasn't quite able to reconcile with his scruffy, less than refined appearance. "I conduct all my business here and have never had any issues."

"Um, right, ok," she said awkwardly.

"So," he said, leaning on the teacher's desk at the front of the room, his sharp gaze looking over both Rose and Lily. "what do need me to dig up on Scorpius Malfoy?"

Rose gave a start. "I didn't say anything about Scorpius Malfoy," she accused, narrowing her eyes. "What makes you think this has anything to do with him?"

"You mean other than the fact that he was death glaring me as I walked out of the Great Hall with the two of you or how you've been stalking him for the past few days?" Adam said in a sarcastic tone that Rose did not appreciate one bit. "Nothing, you just seem like perfectly normal casual acquaintances."

"I haven't been stalking him!" Merlin, did everyone know about that?

"Look, we just need the password to the Slytherin common room," Lily cut in before Rose could embarrass herself further. "What's that going to cost?"

Adam turned his sharp eyes onto Lily, looking interested. "Well, when do you plan on breaking into Malfoy's dorm? The password changes every week."

"It doesn't have to do with Scorpius!" Rose exclaimed. Daniels didn't need to know everything after all, she thought.

Adam ignored her and was about to continue talking to Lily when she raised her eyebrows suggestively. "Oh so it's Scorpius now and not Malfoy? I see someone's been getting close to him."

"I have not," Rose said, regretting speaking up. "Why do you want us to be together anyway?"  
"You know, forbidden love and all that. Slytherin bad boy with the Gryffindor-"

"Please, Lily, I'm not the Gryffindor Princess or Golden Girl or anything like that," Rose said humbly, waving her hand around as though dismissing the notion. "I just-"

"Um, earth to Rose. I was going to say the Gryffindor nerd," Lily said, snickering. "Besides, he's just so charming!"

"He's not that great," Rose and Adam scoffed at the same time.

"What do you have against Scorpius Malfoy?" Lily said, looking quite interested in digging up the depths of Adam Daniels. Rose was about to suggest that they get back on track but found herself interested in Adam's answer.

Adam seemed uncomfortable with both of their stares on him. "Nothing, the guy's perfectly fine. I just don't think he's the prince charming you seem to think he is," he said accusingly to Lily. "If you like him so much, why don't you date him?"

"Yeah!" Rose chimed in. She and Adam shared a nod in solidarity.

"Because Scorpius is meant to be with Rose, I know it," Lily declared. "Besides, he's a bit too perfect, if you know what I mean. He's always so perfectly put together, it's like he doesn't have a hair out of place."  
"What are you talking about? Scorpius isn't that well put together." Rose wrinkled her forehead in confusion. "His tie is almost always too loose and he rolls up his sleeves all the time but they're never perfectly even. He always messes up trying to make the right sleeve as even as the left one. And have you seen his hair after he has quidditch practice? It's kind of messy. Like I know his regular hair is messy but we all know he does it like that on purpose so it still looks great. And his quidditch hair is great too but it's not perfectly put together so I have no idea what you mean, Lily."

She scoffed then noticed the dumbfounded looks on Daniels's and Lily's faces.

"Oh, just shut up!" Rose turned red then turned to snap at Adam. "Could you just tell us what we need to know?"

Adam blinked a few times before recovering from Rose's rant. "Well, like I said, the password changes so I don't know it yet. You need to figure out when you want to get in."

"The Slytherin team usually has practices on Tuesday and Thursday nights," Lily informed Rose. "Remember? Al and James were definitely mad about that at the beginning of the year since they wanted those time slots."

"Next Tuesday, then," Rose decided. That would give her just under a week to plan out how to steal the book. "Can you get the password to me by Sunday?"

Adam nodded, looking a bit affronted. "Obviously. Can Stephen Hawking do basic physics? Does Grindelwald know about wandlore? Could Steve Jobs figure out-"

"I'll take that as a yes then," Rose interrupted, not in the mood to listen to his ego trip despite not even recognizing half of the people he was going on about. "So what do you want in exchange?"

Adam stayed silent for a few long moments. Suspiciously silent. Rose exchanged a worried look with Lily, having no idea what he could even want from her.

"Two things," he finally spoke up, looking pensive. "First, I want to be able to use that Invisibility Cloak of yours once."

"Are you crazy?" Rose exploded. A family heirloom that wasn't even hers? The nerve of him, really.

"He really does know everything," Lily whispered to Rose in awe.

Adam shot Lily a grin. Even the moody Hufflepuff wasn't immune to Lily's charms, Rose thought a bit proudly. "Not that I'm denying that but this wasn't exactly a secret. Everyone's known that Harry Potter possess the third Deathly Hallow since the Second Wizarding War."

"Exactly," Rose said, crossing her arms. "My uncle possesses it, not me. I can't even get it for you."

"That's your problem. Besides, there's absolutely no way that your cousins didn't bring it with them to Hogwarts," he snorted. "They'd definitely let you use it since you're family. I kind of doubt they'd loan it out to me, being a random stranger and all."

"Fine," Rose huffed. "What's the second thing? And it better not be something ridiculous like the first one."

"I want to be able to call a favor from you at some point in the future," Adam said smoothly.

"What kind of favor?" Rose's eyes narrowed again.

"I don't know yet. I just want to know that I can call on you to help me if I need to."

"Nothing illegal or immoral and I'm in," she countered.

Adam smiled and held out his hand. "Looks like we have ourselves a deal, Rose."

"Please, call me Weasley." She shook his hand.

"Isn't this kind of a lot to ask for in exchange for just a password?" Lily asked.

"Oh it's not just for the password. When you make a deal with me, you get the full package." Adam spread his arms out as though show himself off. "I'll help you during the full break-in. You just need to tell me what we're after."

Adam and Lily turned expectantly to Rose who sighed heavily.

"So there's this book I've been looking for to use for my Charms project…" she began, lying for what felt like the thousandth time in a few short days.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N I keep meaning to put an author's note at the beginning of these chapters but get too excited to post and forget to write one, oops. Thank you for all the reviews and followers so far! Also, I realized that James was supposed to be two years older than Rose and Albus when I was about halfway through the chapter but for the sake of this story, let's just pretend that he and Fred are only one year ahead of them haha. I hope you enjoy this chapter, especially since I think it's the longest one yet!

* * *

Three days later, Rose was feeling pretty good about herself. She had most of her plan for stealing the book in place (no, she reminded herself, it was just _borrowing_ really), Scorpius had been shooting her increasingly suspicious and anxious looks so he was on edge, and she had just received an O on her Herbology assignment.

Yes, Rose thought as she happily served herself a second piece of pie at lunch, life was going pretty nicely on track for now and she had more than earned that extra dessert.

Until James sat down across from her. Rose was pretty close with her cousins, James included, so this in itself wasn't too strange. The secretive smile he had wasn't common but also not too out of the ordinary as James would come up with quidditch plays that he thought were 'brilliant' and 'revolutionary' and would keep them under lock and key.

"So I heard you're breaking into the Slytherin dorms."

Now _that_ wasn't normal coming from James. Rose's good mood was instantly spoiled.

"Where did you hear that from?" she hissed, thankful that James at least had the sense to keep his voice low.

"Where do you think?" James snorted. His eyes went directly to Lily, who was sitting just a few seats down from the two of them and gave a sheepish grin to Rose. "Don't worry, I'm not here to stop you."

He gave a convincing smile to Rose who marginally relaxed until James frowned suddenly.

"Unless you're doing this because you're one of Malfoy's fangirls or something, in which case, Rose, I really have to do my duty as your older cousin and-"

"Not a fangirl," Rose said flatly, not even bothering to get frustrated at that comment anymore.

"Oh, good then," James said, also relaxing before leaning in conspiratorially. "I want to get in on your little plan."

Rose just shot him an unimpressed look and raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, I didn't ask you why you were breaking in. Why do you need to know my reason?"

"Because I created the plan. I get to veto any new members."

"Fine, then. Malfoy's the Slytherin quidditch captain and head strategist this year. I need to get his playbook and see what they're planning on doing before our match on Wednesday against them." James looked determined and not at all bothered by by the underhandedness of his plan.

Rose raised an eyebrow. "You don't see anything wrong with that morally? And aren't worried that someone will overhear?"

"We're among family, Rose." James grinned and spread his arms out to gesture towards the rest of the Gryffindor table. "Besides, no one wants to be the one to mess up our chances at the cup this year unless they want to face the Potter wrath."

James struck a pose that Rose was pretty sure was meant to look intimidating but instead just succeeded in making him look slightly confused.

"This would just be leveling the playing field, if anything," he continued. "I've seen Slytherin spies all over during our practices and pretty sure I saw a pair of Extendable Ears under the door to the locker room last match. You can't trust anyone in the other houses anymore."

James looked around shiftly at the other houses to emphasize his point.

"Ok, fine," Rose sighed and gave in. Besides, it could only help to have more people on her side when she actually tried to pull this off, she reasoned. "You're in. We were going to go in on Tuesday night when they have their regular practice. I was going to have Lily keep an eye on the team and make sure they don't come back early and have Adam deal with the rest of Scorpius's roommates."

"No, that can't work," James said immediately. "Malfoy gives his team a break from practice the night before a match so they can rest up. He'll hold practice on Monday instead."

"What?" Rose gasped.

"I know," James scoffed, shaking his head. "It's a stupid idea. Clearly the team should have a practice before so they're warmed up and ready for the next day. Idiot doesn't know how to captain a team."

"Didn't that same idiot win last year in the finals against Gryffindor?" Rose snapped, her stomach quite queasy. Maybe that second slice of pie had been a bad idea. No, pie could never be bad, Rose thought, sending a brief mental apology to the dessert for ever thinking that it could betray her. Which meant that her nausea must be from Scorpius. Stupid slimy Slytherins. "And tomorrow is Monday. That means we have to figure out what to do with the other roommates since their normal plans are messed up."

"Hmmm," James frowned, clearly thinking hard. "Wait, how did you expect Daniels to watch over three different people at the same time if they're all in different places?"

Rose had been dreading that question.

"Well, one of Scorpius's roommates is on the team with him so that would be Lily's job. And I may or may not have been planning to use the Marauder's Map to help?" She tried to smile innocently at James. He did not take the bait.

"Without asking, Rose?" he said, disapprovingly. "Fine, we can use it but only because I'm in this too now."

"Weasley, we need to talk." Adam Daniels dropped into the seat next to James, seemingly coming from out of nowhere. "Scram, Potter, I have some business to discuss with your cousin."

"What now?" Rose barked, not sure if she could handle any more bad news. Seeing James open his mouth to send a retort back, Rose quickly intervened. "He's in on it too now, Adam. Don't worry."

Seemingly satisfied with her approval, Adam threw down a piece of parchment that Rose recognized as an outline of her plan that she sent him yesterday by owl. "First of all, never send anything by owl," he said, admonishing her. "You never know who can intercept it."

"You know I'm not completely stupid, right?" Rose said witheringly. "I charmed it so that only you and Lily would be able to read it."

"Oh, good then." Adam looked slightly surprised that Rose had finally argued back and nodded approvingly. "Secondly, I can't be looking after Malfoy's roommates. I need to be in his dorm too."

"We can't all be in the dorm!" Rose threw up her hands in frustration. "It doesn't matter, we need to change the plan anyway. Malfoy's holding practice on Monday instead so that's our best chance to sneak in."

"Don't worry about that," James intervened, sensing his cousin was on the verge of a breakdown. Again. "We can get Al and Freddie to get the roommates out of the dorm and keep them distracted."

He gave a sudden wicked grin. "I know Fred's got some new products from the joke shop that he's been wanting to try out. Who better than the Slytherins to test them out on?"

Adam gave a suspicious look towards James. "What're you getting out of this, Potter?" he asked.

"James just wants the quidditch playbook before the game against Slytherin." Rose brushed off the issue tiredly before they could go into detail.

"Rose!" James protested. "What did I just say about trusting the other houses?"

"Relax, Potter, I couldn't care less about my house's quidditch team," Adam said dismissively.

"You're a Hufflepuff. Loyalty's like literally the only thing you need to be in that house," Rose said skeptically. "And why do you need to be in Scorpius's dorm?"

"You can be loyal to things other than your house." Rose was really tired of the Hufflepuff's crypticness. "And I need to be in his dorm because mmdjsdfj."

"What?" James and Rose exchanged a confused look and leaned in closer to Adam.

"I said," he said with his ears turning red, enunciating sharply this time but speaking in a low voice. "That I need to know his hair routine. He allegedly has it written down someone but keeps it hidden."

James and Rose just stared at him for a few very long seconds until James broke it by shrugging.

"That actually makes sense. The guy has great hair. You know what, I want his quidditch playbook AND his hair routine too!" he declared.

"Not so loud!" Rose shushed him and glanced towards the Slytherin table to make sure that Scorpius wasn't looking at them. "And why in Merlin's name do you care about his hair routine, Adam?"

Scorpius wasn't looking at them. Scorpius, Rose was dismayed to see, was instead sitting next to a very pretty Annabell Zabini who had just placed a delicate hand on his arm. Not that it mattered to Rose. In fact, it was a good thing that Annabell was there, Rose told herself, to distract Scorpius from seeing the not-so-subtle meeting at the Gryffindor table about him.

Rose gritted her teeth and turned back to the problem in front of her.

"I don't!" Adam denied, his face slowly turning red like his ears. "Your cousin-" He jerked his head towards Lily. "-has been going on about it for so long that I just want to know what's so great about it."

"Well, we can't just rob the guy of every piece of parchment he owns. Much less get into the Slytherin dorms all together. I was already having difficulty figuring out how to get in on my own."

"We can use the Cloak and all hide together to get into the common room and dorms," James said determinedly. "Lily, Al, and Freddie should be able to handle the other people involved and if we really need to I can get the rest of the team to help out. Sound good?"

"For once, I don't actually hate a plan that a Gryffindor came up with." Rose was dismayed to see that Adam was siding with James on this and that they were all determined to get into Scorpius's rooms. "Works for me."

"It's decided then." James said, using his 'captain's' voice that he usually only brought out for quidditch.

Rose just moaned and put her head on the table, wondering if it would be ok to have a third slice of pie.

It looked as though the heist was indeed on for tomorrow, she thought glumly.


	6. Chapter 6

"Ok, let's go over this one last time." Rose took a deep breath, hoping that it would calm her down. "The Slytherin quidditch team has practice at 8 and Scorpius usually makes his team leave the dorms at 7:30 so that takes care of Scorpius and Andrew Nott. Lily and Anna will be stationed by the stands to make sure they don't come back earlier than planned, right?"

Lily nodded while Anna, a chaser on the Gryffindor team who James had recruited to help out, gave an encouraging smile to Rose.

"That leaves Al and Fred to get Logan Scott and Trace Zabini out of their dorm. Guys?" Rose wasn't particularly hopeful on this front but they had both insisted that they had this handled so she decided to let them be for once.

"I got into a fight yesterday with Zabini so we both have detention with Flitwick tonight at 7:45," Fred said, a bit too smugly for someone who had detention himself but Rose decided not to comment on it as he _had_ done his job.

"Isn't that your 15th one this semester?" James said, leaning over to high-five Fred. "I'm only at 12 myself."

"Al?" Rose turned to her other cousin, praying his plan didn't just involve luring the other Slytherin out of the dorm and knocking him out.

"I sent Scott a note saying it was from Sprout and that he needs extra Herbology lessons starting tonight otherwise he'd fail. Not too difficult to get him to believe it considering he's dumber than most trolls," Al said matter-of-factly.

"Wow, that's actually a good idea!" Rose heaved a sigh of relief. "So that just leaves me, Adam, and James to take the Cloak and go into the dorm for the book."

"And the quidditch plays," James interjected.

"And the… other things," Adam clarified, looking as uncomfortable as Rose had ever seen him among the Gryffindors that dominated James and Fred's dormitory where they were all gathered.

"And the quidditch plays and the other things," Rose amended, rolling her eyes. "It's almost 7:15 now so we should all head to our positions and meet back here at 9."

"You got this, Rose!" Lily said enthusiastically as she left the room with Anna in tow.

Rose smiled weakly in response.

* * *

Huddled in between James and Adam under the Cloak, Rose was getting ready to kill someone.

"For the last time, I don't _know_ why he's not out yet," Rose hissed to Adam.

"Well he's still in there so you better figure it out otherwise you're not getting your stupid book tonight," Adam snapped back.

Rose was about to jam a pointy elbow into his side when the Slytherin door slid open with Trace Zabini and his twin sister Annabell stepping out.

"Why do you even have detention anyway?" Annabell asked, not looking like she particularly cared about her brother's response.

"Weasley was being a twat in class again," Trace grimaced.

"Which one?" Annabell scoffed, tossing back a head of perfectly curled blonde hair. "There's so many of them it's impossible to get around the castle without seeing one of them. That one Gryffindor Weasley girl is especially annoying."

"Who, Rose?" Trace shrugged. "Scorpius mentioned her a few times."  
Rose found herself listening intently while James tensed next to her. Adam didn't look like he cared one way or the other which way the conversation went.

"Mentioned her in what way?" The Slytherin girl narrowed her eyes.

"Something about not getting too close to her recently since she could be trying to get something from us? I don't know, ask him yourself. You're the one going to watch him at his quidditch practice anyway." Trace looked wholly unbothered by his sister fuming next to him.

"Scorpius didn't bring her up at all to me and we've been _quite_ close recently," Annabell decided smugly. "She must just be one of those silly girls following him around."

Rose deflated a bit. James relaxed. Adam still looked bored.

"Ok, he was the last one in the dorm so we can go into the common room now," James whispered, watching the Zabini twins walk away. "Daniels, you're up."

The three of them crept up to the Slytherin door where Adam whispered "Salazar's heirs" for it to swing open.

Rose and James exchanged an eyeroll at the password but continued stepping through to the common room. Thankfully it was mostly empty, with the few Slytherin students that were there easily dismissing the door opening for seemingly no reason. Adam silently gestured towards the staircase and lead them up there, finally stopping on the third floor landing.

"The sixth year boys' dormitory," he said, nodding towards the door in front of them. This seemed to suffice for James, who tore the Cloak off of them and barged into the room unceremoniously.

Rose began to follow but was stopped with a hand on her arm right before she could cross the doorway.

"Rose," Adam started, grimacing. "About what that Zabini girl was saying before-"

"Annabell?" Rose said, trying to sound unconcerned. "It's fine, she doesn't-"

"Malfoy doesn't like her," he said in a rush.

"What?"

"You know I really don't like talking about stuff like this." Adam heaved a big sigh, looking pained. "But I've seen the way he looks at her and trust me when I say that he is most definitely not into her and likes you."

Rose could only blink. "He's always with her though," she protested. "And he didn't even notice me before I needed something he had."

" _She's_ always with _him_ ," Adam corrected her. "That's something completely different. He always looks bored when she's around. I know you've seen how he acts; don't bother trying to deny it, Weasley." He cut her off before Rose could protest that she was in fact not a stalker, no matter how much it may appear so. "And trust me, he noticed you."

"How do you even know any of this?" Rose demanded before hastily adding, "Not that it even matters to me what Scorpius Malfoy thinks."

"Keep telling yourself that." Rose was dismayed to see that Adam looked _amused_ at her denial. "And all I do is _observe_ , Rose. It's really not that hard."

"Are you guys coming or what?" James demanded from inside the room. "You gotta see the stuff this guy has!"

"All I'm saying is that you shouldn't underestimate yourself when it comes to Scorpius Malfoy," Adam sad sagely before going in after James.

Rose was hit by a surprising wave of endearment for the caustic Hufflepuff as she followed him into the room.

"James, what are you doing?" she gasped, horrified at the mess in front of her. James was crouched in front of what Rose assumed was Scorpius's bed in the process of lifting the mattress off of the bed frame.

"What do you think I'm doing? I'm looking for the goddamn quidditch plays!"

"Under his bed? Why would you not check his desk or any of his drawers?" Rose cried out, exasperated, gesturing to the meticulously organized desk in front of her.

"As any real quidditch player knows, Rosie," James explained as though she were a small yet particularly bright child. "You keep your quidditch plays close to you, not mixed in with ordinary textbooks. You can never know who's out to get them."

"Like you?" Rose deadpanned.

"I sleep with my own plays under my pillow every night," James continued proudly, not paying attention to Rose's comments or the strange look Adam gave him.

"James, I can guarantee you that Scorpius's thought process is probably the exact opposite of yours. Not to mention that we now have to make his bed again!"

"His quidditch strategies are right here, Potter." Adam interrupted their bickering, waving a slim book in the air.

James's head popped up. "Where'd you find that?" he asked, eagerly grabbing the book.

"In the desk drawer where a normal person keeps them." Adam shook his head at James's exuberance while Rose stifled a laugh. James's own quidditch book, or as he called it, _Potter's_ _Plays: Quidditch Strategies from a Brilliant Mind_ written, edited, and performed by James Potter, was about three inches thick with messy scrawls all over the pages and bits of paper sticking out of it, not to mention the stains of butterbeer that adorned the covers. Despite its haphazard appearance however, James adored his book and would sooner die than let harm befall it.

Scorpius's book, as Rose had suspected, was essentially the exact opposite in looks and organization. A handsome leather bound book, it looked every bit as refined as its owner, if it were even possible for a book to give off an aura of regality. Plays were carefully written out in a beautiful cursive and separated into different categories of keeper, beaters, and chasers. In fact, Rose noted, the only position for which he hadn't written any ideas for was his own position of seeker.

"Wow," she commented, looking down at the diagrams also outlined step by step on the side. "This might actually make me want to care about quidditch."

James shot her a betrayed look but continued flipping through the pages.

"Say what you want about the guy but he knows how to strategize," James agreed begrudgingly.

"His notes look the same way too," Adam noted, reading one of Scorpius's notes from a Charms lesson. Again, perfectly organized. Rose wondered if it would be creepy if she asked him for handwriting lessons later. Probably, she decided disappointedly. "I wonder how much I could sell these for."

"Adam!" she exclaimed. "We are not taking any more of his things. They're his personal things."

"Whatever, Weasley." He rolled his eyes. "Just go look for your book already."

Rose glared at his retreating back suspiciously but left him to search the rest of the desk while she took the other side of the desk drawers. Unfortunately, Scorpius had apparently been in the middle of writing an essay and had left his bottle of ink opened on his desk. So when Rose accidentally bumped into the desk, the bottle spilled all over her pristine white uniform shirt.

"Oh, great!" she moaned, feeling the wet ink seep through her shirt. James quickly wiped up the ink spilled on the desk but no matter how much she tried to Scourgify her shirt, the ink persistently stayed.

"'Permanent Ink. UnScourgifiable for all of your school needs.'" Adam read aloud from the bottle. Rose groaned.

"Here, just take one of Malfoy's shirts," James said, opening a dresser drawer and tossing Rose a button down white shirt.

"I can't take this!" she protested, eyes wide. She could smell Scorpius's characteristic cologne on it even just from holding it.

"He has a dozen of them. Just take it, it's not like we haven't already ruined the place." Adam shrugged.

Rose hesitated but gave in and headed into the bathroom to change into Scorpius's shirt, her stomach twisting nervously just at the thought of it.

"So I think we should check to see if maybe he hid the book in a different-" she started saying as she came out of the bathroom, rolling up the sleeves on Scorpius's shirt.

"Rose," Adam interrupted her, sounded tense.

"What?" Rose looked up to see Andrew Nott, one of Scorpius's roommates, standing in the doorway to his dorm and looking utterly confused.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Finally was able to finish this chapter after months during finals week, of course, because when else? Sorry for the wait and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

There was a brief moment of silence as Rose scrambled for something to say. A quick glance at James and Adam showed that neither of them were about to pitch in and help.

Rose quickly pasted on a smile. "Hi Andrew! Scorpius told us no one would be here but now that you are, you can help us!"

"What?" Poor Nott still looked lost, as did James and Adam who exchanged befuddled glances.

"You see, Scorpius has a book I need to borrow and he told me I could come and get it tonight, but he had to move up his quidditch practice so he couldn't give it to me himself." Rose was sure her grin was beginning to look a bit manic. Adam's alarmed look at her pretty much confirmed it. "He said I could just come in his room and find it on his desk but it wasn't there. You wouldn't happen to know where it is, would you?"

Nott cast a skeptical glance towards their corner of the room. Their ransacked, destroyed part of the room.

"Scorpius said you'd try something like this to get that book," he said, shaking his head with a smirk all too reminiscent of the ones Rose had been treated to by Scorpius oh so recently. Really, did all of Slytherin have lessons on perfecting that smug look when they were first Sorted, she thought in exasperation. And for the love of Merlin, _how_ could he have known she'd try and steal it? "Though he didn't mention the whole family would be involved."

Nott's gaze trailed disdainfully towards Adam and James, who was unsuccessfully trying to hide the Slytherin quidditch plays behind his back.

"Hey, I'm not a part of this." Adam raised his hands in a gesture of innocence.

"Please, you wish you were part of our super cool family," James hissed at Adam as Rose shot him a dirty look.

"Nor am I quite sure why you would need his shirt-" Rose couldn't hold back a furious blush of embarrassment at that point. "But don't bother lying. He knows you-"

" _Stupefy_!"

A jet of red light hit Nott directly in his chest and he fell over unconscious.

"James!" Rose gasped, appalled.

"Well, he clearly wasn't going to help," James defended himself. "Obliviate him so we can search his desk, find that stupid book, and get out of here. What's it called again?"

"Umm…"

" _Obliviate_." Adam pointed his wand at a passed out Nott before turning towards Rose. "For Merlin's sake, think a little. He's a Slytherin. He's not going to leave something that important that he knows you're after lying around on his desk. He's got to have some sort of hidden place to put it or have it disguised."

"Well, where are you going?" Rose demanded, seeing him turn away once more. "Aren't you going to help?"

"I'm going to search their bathroom for his hair products," Adam called over his shoulder. "Now hurry up, we probably only have a few more minutes until Nott wakes up."

Rose shot him an irritated look and made a rude gesture while his back was turned. James snickered. Adam's head poked out from the bathroom doorway, eyes narrowing.

"Did you say something?"

"Nothing," Rose and James called out simultaneously with similar guilty looks.

"That's what I thought." His head disappeared back into the bathroom.

"Is he always like that?" James muttered.

"It seems to be the trend." Rose sighed heavily, moving towards the trunk at the end of Scorpius's bed.

As she moved a slim copy of _Advanced Transfiguration for the Brilliant Mind_ out of the way, Rose paused. Lifted it again. "James, take this book for a second," she called out.

James poked his head out from Scorpius's desk and grabbed it. "Should it be this heavy?" He frowned, weighing it in his hand. "It's pretty thin to have this weight to it."

"So it does feel heavier than it looks?" Rose asked excitedly. When James confirmed again with a nod, she grinned. "Perfect. I think he may have put a charm to change its appearance so we wouldn't notice anything out of the ordinary."

"And he just put it with his other things so it blended right in, knowing we'd be looking for some sort of secret hiding spot." James looked impressed.

"Well, I got his hair potion instructions," Adam said, sliding a piece of paper into his pocket as he came out of the bathroom. "Everyone else good to go?"

"Yep," Rose smiled victoriously. "Back to the common room it is."

* * *

One hour later, Rose wasn't quite as thrilled with her success.

"Is timeliness an issue with your family or are they all just unable to follow the simplest of instructions to do their jobs and distract people?" Adam asked idly from where he lay on the couch.

"Honestly, it's probably a bit of both." James shrugged, doodling on a piece of parchment.

"You know, it wouldn't hurt to help me with this," Rose hinted at them both. She had been trying to crack the complex set of charms Scorpius had placed on the book since they had returned to the common room to no avail. Despite combing through the 6th and 7th year Charms textbooks, Rose had not been able to find anything close to resembling the advanced level of magic in front of her.

Oh no, Rose thought, not again. She was starting to get that nauseous feeling from lunch a few days ago, this time from the sneaking suspicion that Scorpius Malfoy was in fact a great deal smarter than he led people to believe (which — even she could now begrudgingly admit to herself, if not out loud yet — was already pretty brilliant,).

"Nah, I think you've got it under control. Oh, wait — sorry, Rose, I think this is your assignment." James grimaced apologetically, holding up Rose's essay on the history of the goblin wars that was now decorated with a cartoon depiction of McGonagall yelling at Peter Jeffries, who the other day had inexplicably decided to sneak in a litter of Nifflers to raise them in the Ravenclaw boys' restroom. The drawing wasn't all too bad, Rose decided.

"It's fine. Binns doesn't read these things anyway." She graciously dismissed James's apology with a tired wave.

"Why would anyone put dragon blood in a hair potion?" Adam asked, looking utterly lost. "Wouldn't that just burn off your hair? And how on earth is Malfoy able to afford powdered unicorn horn, on a regular basis no less?"

Dragon blood and powdered unicorn horn… Rose frowned. She was sure she had heard of those two ingredients together somewhere before and not for a hair potion.

However, before she could think too deeply about that, the common room opened and in flew Lily, Anna, and Albus.

"Rose!" gasped Lily, looking as though she were about to pass out from running. "Did you get it?"

Anna and Albus, both of whom were on the Gryffindor Quidditch team and were in perfect shape, looked equally interested while standing upright and breathing normally.

"Yep," she said with a half-hearted smile, deciding not to tell them that she was at a loss for how to crack it. They'd already gone through the trouble of helping her, she wouldn't burden them with any more research. "But what happened to you all?"

"Um." Lily and Anna exchanged guilty looks.

"Well, we were keeping an eye on the Slytherin team as they were practicing," Anna began, looking nervously at Lily. "But there was a bit of an issue —"

"That blind bat of a fool Parker tried to aim a bludger at one of their chasers but missed and hit me!" Lily interrupted furiously. "I don't even _look_ like the chaser he was trying to hit. I don't even think she knows what a hairbrush is, honestly…"

"Oh no, Lily, are you ok?" Rose asked, genuinely concerned, but also knowing what the answer would be considering Lily was going on a rant about the Slytherin beaters instead of milking her injury for all it was worth, as was her usual tactic. James, for his part, was furiously adding to the details of his doodle while Adam sat up on the couch, sharp eyes quickly scanning over Lily.

"Only my pride is injured." Lily gave a wounded sigh. "Oh, and my arm was sprained but Pomfrey healed that in like a minute."

"She's fine," Anna stifled a laugh. "So after Lily was hit, she fell out of the tree we were hiding out in and the team kind of saw us so they came to yell at us for spying on his practice. I think Malfoy told Nott to go back to the dorms."

"Why would he do that?" Rose frowned. "He didn't even check to see if you were ok?"

"Well, Scorpius did. He made sure I went to the infirmary," Lily admitted before sniffing indignantly. "The rest of those brutes just ran around screaming their heads off. Though it's only fair that Scorpius should be the one to help since he's the one who picked that idiot to be a beater despite his obvious lack of skill."

"I'm sure he's doing the best with the players he has," Rose said absently, choosing to ignore Albus's incredulous look and the snort that came from a certain Hufflepuff on the couch.

"He may have sent Nott away since Malfoy didn't really look like he bought our excuse of why we were there in the first place," Anna supplemented.

"Tell Rose what Lily said you were doing," Albus snickered, clearly having heard the story from them already.

Lily threw him a dirty look. "Birdwatching," she stated proudly. "I don't know why he wouldn't believe us, it's a perfectly reasonable activity to do."

Rose closed her eyes for a few seconds and told herself that all that mattered was they she had gotten what was needed. "Well, considering that it's the dead of winter and all the birds have migrated away, it's no wonder he didn't believe you," she said, rolling her eyes. "But it's fine, we were able to get out anyway."

"That's exactly what Malfoy told us about the birdwatching. Nerds." Anna told her, grinning. Lily beamed brightly, mouthing 'meant to be' at Rose.

"I was watching Scott on the Map to make sure he stayed in the greenhouses. The idiot somehow got lost and took like 30 minutes to get there so I'm not quite sure he knows where they are. It's no wonder he's failing the class, honestly," Albus chuckled, then hastily continued at Rose's sharp look telling him to get to the point. "Then I saw Lily and Anna in the hospital wing so I went to check on them and we ran back here once we realized you might have gotten caught by Nott."

"Ok, great job, Al," Rose beamed at him. "So now all that leaves is Fred. I wonder what could have-"

"Oh, Fred's still in detention." Albus interrupted. "He and Zabini were about to be let out early so he set off a few fireworks here and there, got Zabini into another fight, and Flitwick gave them both double detention to be served right there."

"Poor guy," James winced in sympathy. "So, now what?"

The group turned expectantly to Rose. "Oh um, well thank you for all of your efforts tonight," she began grandly, feeling as though they were expecting some sort of grand speech. "Though not without casualties —" Lily acknowledged her line with a solemn nod. "we have still come back victorious. We shall reconvene later. Thank you and good night?" She finished hesitantly.

Everyone nodded, with James and Anna even mock applauding her, and eventually they all headed off to their respective rooms. All but Rose, who remained in front of the fireplace in the common room, wondering how she could turn that unassuming slim book in front of her into the hefty royal purple cover she knew was underneath. And trying to not think about what Scorpius Malfoy would do when he saw his book missing. (and his Quidditch playbook. And his hair potion.) (She wasn't sure whether to smile or feel terrified.)


	8. Chapter 8

Before she'd taken the book from his room, Lily had excitedly asked Rose what she thought Scorpius would do to retaliate. Rose had merely shrugged and replied that he'd probably act as though nothing were wrong while plotting to steal it back. At the time, she'd given no further thought to it, but after her plan had gone off, if not without a hitch then at least achieving its goals, Rose was stuck wondering what Scorpius would do once he found the book gone. Though she lay awake thinking of the books in the Restricted Section that may have the set of charms she was looking for to crack the protection spells on her book of _The Dark Arts_ , Rose's thoughts couldn't help but wander back to Scorpius' different possible responses. Would he be smug that she couldn't crack it? Impressed that she stole it? Frustrated that he couldn't stop it?

Whatever the answer, Rose was sure he wouldn't reveal anything to her outright. Scorpius Malfoy had built himself quite the solid reputation over the years of being, if not a bit mysterious, a calm, collected, and unruffled figure — which was completely and utterly frustrating. Rose couldn't help but wish, just a little, that he could have some form of visible expression tomorrow, be it a narrowing of the eyes or a quirk of the eyebrow. But, she thought regretfully, that was unlikely to happen. No, he was more likely the type to act as unshakeable as usual and strike when she would least expect it.

* * *

She was wrong. She was so very wrong.

"He's still staring," Lily whispered to her with a wince. Lily was too polite to say so, but replace 'stare' with 'deadly glare' and that would have been a more accurate depiction of what Scorpius was doing.

"You can stop the updates, Lily," Rose said with a groan just as Adam dropped down in the seat across from her and next to Albus.

"Malfoy looks pissed and I'm not sitting alone waiting around for him to attack," Adam said before any of them could ask. "You all better not leave me alone with him because I will sell everyone here out in a second if it comes down to torture."

"Relax, I'm sure it won't come down to that." Albus said, looking more at ease than the rest of them. Nott walking into the Great Hall them with a large bruise on his forehead and a scowl on his face. "On second thought…"

"Merlin, what'd you do to Malfoy, Rose? He looks ready to kill someone," James said, sitting down next to Adam. Albus rolled his eyes and Adam slapped James across the back of the head to the approving nods of Lily and Anna.

"Oh, I don't know, James. Can you think of anything we might have done that involves him?" Rose asked sweetly.

From the moment Rose had sat down for breakfast, she had been acutely aware of his angry gaze on her from across the Great Hall, complete with a scowl replacing the usual apathy on his handsome face. When she was almost done with breakfast (not that she ate much with her stomach in knots) and he hadn't glanced away once, she forced herself to look up and meet his eyes and then instantly regretted it.

In all of their previous, though admittedly limited, interactions, Rose had thought that Scorpius tolerated and even enjoyed her company at times, treating her as a constant source of amusement, sort of like an idiot pet he kept around for fun. While she wasn't exactly thrilled with that, it was still better than how he was looking at her now. The undisguised fury in his eyes had her flinching and immediately looking away.

"I've got to go to class now," she mumbled to Lily, who gave her a knowing sympathetic look as she fled to her Transfiguration classroom. That whole 'be careful what you wish for' things really did not do justice in her case.

Rose remembered all too late that Tuesdays were when she had Transfiguration, Ancient Runes, and Herbology with Scorpius. She made sure to keep her head down as the other students filed in but couldn't help glancing at Scorpius in the middle of the lesson. Thankfully, he wasn't glaring at her this time but she couldn't help but take note of his clenched jaw.

"Ms. Weasley, if you're finished with your doodles, perhaps you can tell me the theory behind changing an inanimate object into an animate one." Professor McGonagall looked at her over her spectacles with a raised eyebrow.

Rose looked up with a start, realizing she had drawn Scorpius' side profile with his sharp jawline in the margins of her notes. Hastily scribbling it out, she mumbled out an answer, not particularly caring whether it was right or not.

"Well done, Ms. Weasley. In the future, do try to pay more attention to the subject material than to… other things." McGonagall pointedly looked at Scorpius, though subtly so no one other than Rose could tell.

"Yes, Professor," Rose said in a low voice, turning red.

After Embarrassing Moment #54394 in Rose's life, she made sure to take meticulous notes during her next two classes and never lingered too long in the hallways for fear that Scorpius would find her.

This worked well until after dinner when she was heading back to Gryffindor Tower alone. A hand grabbed Rose's arm and jerked her into a side hallway.

"Wha-" Rose started to say before another hand was placed over her mouth and pushed her against the wall.

"Rose," Scorpius bit out. Up close, Rose observed that he looked even more of a mess than she'd originally thought, with light shadows under his eyes and slightly disheveled hair. His eyes closed and he took a deep breath clearly meant to try and calm himself down. His tongue briefly darted out to wet his lips and Rose couldn't help but follow that movement with her eyes, letting out a small sigh. Scorpius seemed to remember where he was then and shook his head for a moment before straightening up.

"Rose," he repeated in a steadier tone, making direct eye contact. His hand had moved away from her mouth and now he was gripping both of her arms. "I know you broke into my dorm."

He watched her face carefully as Rose opened her mouth to argue, then thought better of it and sheepishly bit her lip. Scorpius nodded with a brisk satisfaction at her lack of denial and continued.

"I don't care that you took the book. I just-"

"What?" Rose blurted out. Scorpius blinked, apparently not expecting her to interrupt.

" _The Dark Arts: Practical Applications_. That's what you were after obviously." A tired smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Tell me, have you figured out how to get past the illusion covering it?"

"I don't suppose you'd like to help out with that," Rose commented irritably.

Scorpius grinned. "You're a smart girl, Rose. I'm sure you'll figure it out. Anyway, the book isn't what I wanted to talk to you about."

"What do you mean you don't care about it?" Rose asked suspiciously.

"I already have what I need from it. Honestly, I probably would've just given it to you if you'd asked like a normal person, but then I thought it'd be fun to see if you'd be able to actually get it," Scorpius said, giving her a smug look. "You can keep the book. I just need the other thing you took."

He gave her a meaningful look. Rose couldn't help but flush.

"I didn't mean to take it! I just spilled something on my own clothes and I needed to change out of it," she stammered out.

"What are you talking about?" Scorpius looked lost.

"Your shirt." Rose closed her eyes in embarrassment but then peeked up at Scorpius' face. "Unless you meant the Quidditch plays? Or your hair routine?" she added weakly.

"You took my shirt?"

"Um…"

He raised an eyebrow but then his eyes narrowed. "Wait, you took my Quidditch plays?"

Luckily, he didn't give her time to answer before continuing. "And what hair routine? I don't have any particular hair routine. That was probably Logan's recipe for hangover potion."

"Really? Nothing?" Rose couldn't resist asking. "You're saying you just wake up and it looks like _that_?"

She studied the swoops in Scorpius' lanky white-blonde hair as he self-consciously ran a hand through it. Rose wondered what it would be like to run her own hands through his hair. It looked quite soft, she couldn't help thinking.

Seeing him start to grin again, Rose quickly moved on. "So what do you think was taken then?"

"There's a certain set of instructions for a potion I had hidden away and it's not there anymore." Scorpius looked rather grim again. "I've already started it and the ingredients are such that it would be near impossible to replicate. I need to finish it by the end of this month and I can't do that without the rest of the instructions. You're sure you didn't take it?"

His eyes narrowed once more and Rose felt herself puff up in response. "No, I haven't taken it. I can't believe you're even accusing me of that!"

Scorpius gave her a droll look in response.

"Ok, I see your point," she admitted. "But I promise it wasn't me. What's this potion even for?"  
"Why do you need the book?" he shot back. Rose glared, mouth set in a firm line. Scorpius had a defensively haughty look as well.

After a few moments of silence, Rose's shoulders slumped.

"Fine, neither of us is getting anywhere with this." She turned to leave but then hesitated and looked back at Scorpius.

"Can I ask one question though?" she asked, feeling a bit stupid.

"Sure." Scorpius still looked slightly suspicious but Rose supposed she couldn't blame him.

"Are you really mad at me?" When he looked surprised, Rose did what she did best when nervous - ramble. "Because you just looked so furious this morning and all throughout the day and I just wanted to make sure that you're not actually-"

"I'm not mad at you, Rose." Scorpius rolled his eyes and Rose was happy to see him give a small smile. "I was just frustrated about the missing potion and I thought you were one to take it."  
"Ok." She let out a long breath. "Well, I'll keep an eye out for it," she offered lamely.

"Thanks, I appreciate it," Scorpius replied wryly.

As she walked back to the Gryffindor dorms, Rose couldn't help but think back to the list of ingredients in what they'd thought was the hair routine Adam had taken. Though she wasn't sure what they were actually used in, those items weren't typically used in hangover potions. She made a mental note to ask Adam for a second look at that paper. In the meantime, Rose still had to figure out how to read the book she'd gone through so much trouble to get.


	9. Chapter 9

Rose could feel her eye beginning to twitch and, when combined that with the throbbing headache that had appeared half an hour ago, she figured that was a sign that she should stop her work for the night. The answer to the book's charm remained elusively out of her grasp — _damn you, Malfoy_ , she thought half-heartedly — but she still had a pile of Ancient Runes homework to translate so Rose decided to take a quick power nap before switching tasks.

However, as she was setting up a pillow on the couch to lie down, Rose saw Adam walk into the library. She quickly stood up and made her way to where he sat inconspicuously in the corner of the room.

"Up to anything interesting?" Rose asked, trying to sound casual.

Adam sent her a look clearly saying, _I don't know what you're up to but I know you don't care about my Astronomy homework_. "Out with it, Weasley."

"I can't come over to chat?" Rose tried to look indignant but couldn't quite manage it without having a slightly guilty look accompany it as well.

"You can, which is how I know the difference between your 'catching up with friends' look and your 'I need something from you' look. Malfoy should probably give you some lessons on a good poker face." He grinned wolfishly into Rose's surprised face.

"Ha. So funny," she replied drily after taking a moment to compose herself. "You know you just called us friends, right?"

"I think _you_ think we're friends. Not that I do," he clarified before rolling his eyes. "Just tell me what you want so I can ask you for help on this star chart in return."

"Fine," she huffed out. "Do you remember the list you stole when we were in his room?"

"The one with the insane ingredients? Yeah, I figured out pretty quickly that was no hair routine." Adam snorted. Rose looked around to make sure no one was around them before he quickly interrupted, saying "It's a Friday night, Rose. I'm pretty sure everyone else is out celebrating the Ravenclaw Quidditch win over Hufflepuff."

"Huh. I didn't realize there was a game today."

"Yeah, I've only seen you at Quidditch games when your family on the Gryffindor team is playing or when the Slytherin team is playing. Now why would that last one be?" Rose didn't particularly care for the sly smirk on the Hufflepuff's face.

"Daniels, for fuck's sake-" she bit out as he chuckled.

"Ok, fine, I'm done. What did you want?"

"I need it. The list. I think I know what it is but I need to see the full thing to double check and make sure I'm right."

Adam raised an eyebrow. "And what exactly do you think it is?"

"It's not my secret to tell; it's Scorpius's," she hedged, not ready to voice her suspicious out loud.

"You know there's no way in hell I'm just handing that list over without reason, right?"

"You have to promise me you won't tell anyone," Rose whispered furtively. "I mean it, if I'm right and this gets out, they could lock him up n Azkaban."

"Damn, Weasley. This sounds like some dark shit." Adam looked both impressed and worried. "If this is something stupid like a potion to make you sick and get you out of class that only you would be offended by, I'm going to be seriously disappointed."

"Just swear you won't tell people." Rose scowled at him, pushing her lecture on skipping class in the back of her mind for another time perhaps less serious. Adam made a sarcastic x motion across his heart.

"I swear, now tell me." He leaned in eagerly despite trying to look unaffected, Rose was sure.

She hesitated one last time before deciding to trust the loner Hufflepuff and lowered her voice even further. "Have you ever heard of Portenovia?

Adam's reaction was subtle yet instant. His eyebrows shot up and he turned pale but there was no recoil of horror that Rose had expected. She wasn't surprised he'd heard of the potion. It was obscure to be sure, but something had told Rose that Adam, of all of the people involved in their group, would be most likely to be familiar with it. After a moment of silence as he absorbed this new information, he spoke up.

"That's just an old legend. As in, not real."

"It's been mentioned in several ancient texts, including in one edition of Hogwarts, A History," Rose refuted calmly, having gone through the denial process herself not too long ago. "It clearly has its roots sometime in the 7th century but all references to it have been removed from texts sometime in the middle of the 10th century."

"For good reason," Adam argued, his voice rising until a sharp looked from Rose quelled it. Reverting back to a harsh whisper, he continued. "It _shouldn't_ exist. It's not natural. Merlin only knows what could be done with it if someone actually discovered how to properly brew it."

"I'm not disagreeing with you." Rose held up her hands in a placating gesture.

"This isn't just a love potion, Rose. Generating actual true love for someone. That's not to be taken lightly."

"I know. Though I suppose if he actually can properly make it, this would be considered the only love potion. All the others could only be classified as lust potions in comparison."

"He?" Adam questioned pointedly. When Rose didn't respond, he groaned and put his head in his hands. He didn't move for several minutes. Rose considered shaking him to see if he was alright or if he had fallen into some sort of catatonic state but decided to wait it out.

"You're telling me," Adam started slowly after sitting up, though Rose was impressed that his voice was still steady. "That Malfoy has been trying to brew Portenovia over the course of the semester. And that I accidentally stole his only copy of the ingredients and instructions."

Rose shrugged. "Basically."  
"How the hell are you so calm about this?" he demanded. "I would have expected Rose Weasley of all people to be up in arms about this and have him expelled on sight."

She couldn't do much more than shrug again. "I don't know. I guess I've just had more time to adjust to the idea? It kind of makes sense that he would be the one to figure it out though. And it fits in with why he needed the Dark Arts book as well. Those are the oldest works and most restricted too."

It wasn't really a lie. Scorpius was obviously brilliant and a potion like this would definitely be intriguing enough to capture his attention. Add that to his general aura of mysteriousness and keeping to himself and he was the perfect type of person who would try and brew it. The only thing Rose couldn't figure out was what he was using the potion for. Which was unfortunately basically the whole mystery in the first place. Adam scoffed in disbelief, clearly hearing the note of admiration in her voice.

"I can't believe you're actually impressed that he's doing this. No one has successfully figured out the instructions for this potion in living memory, much less actually brewed it. It's not even Amortentia levels of intense." His face took on a distant look as though recalling an unpleasant memory. Rose wisely decided not to question his previous encounters with love potions, sure she would have to dock several hundred points from his house.

"I can't believe that you don't want to help me with this," she countered, crossing her arms. "You only take risks when it's something small like bringing in Muggle contraband?"

"I didn't say that." Adam crossed his arms as well, the two of them staring at each other in a silent impasse.

"Look, I don't even know for sure if this is what he's up to," Rose relented, unable to take the tense moment for long. "Odds are it's probably something completely different. I just need to see that list to make sure."

"And if it actually is what you think it is then he definitely needs it back," Adam agreed with a sigh. "Ingredients that volatile can't be good, especially if he's already mixed them together or if he's just left it all simmering while looking for the next set of instructions. That we happened to take."

"That _you_ took."

"Hey, I wouldn't have even thought of going in there if it hadn't been for you."

Again they glared at each other, this time in mock anger before Rose let out a snicker and Adam cracked a grin.

"All right, I'll bring it over to you at breakfast tomorrow. Now where the hell does Venus go on this chart?"

* * *

The next morning had Rose anxiously watching the doors to the Great Hall from her position at the Gryffindor table. Though she'd made sure to arrive an hour earlier than usual, there was no sign of Adam at the Hufflepuff table or elsewhere. To be fair, there was no sign of anyone in the Great Hall, but Rose wasn't feeling particularly lenient with him after she'd confided in the importance of their mission to him.

About an hour later, Lily had made her way down with some of the other girls from her dorm, red hair still slightly tangled from sleep. She shot an alarmed look at Rose, who was patiently perched at the edge of her seat, craning her head to look at the entrance.

"Do I even want to know how early you were here?" Lily yawned. "You know it's like 7:30 am right now. I don't even think the birds are up yet."

"Oh just thought I'd get an early start to the day," Rose answered in the breeziest tone she could manage before standing up too quickly and hitting her knees on the bottom of the table at the sight of Adam walking in the hall. "About time," she muttered.

"What was that?"  
"Oh, nothing!"

"Rose, Lily," Adam greeted as he sat down across from them then frowned. "It just hit me. Were the matching flower names on purpose? Because I can't think of anything less original than that."

Lily, suddenly much more alert, sent him a friendly smile. "What're you doing here with the lions? Feeling brave today?" she teased.

He sent her a droll look in response and snatched up a croissant from her plate. "If you're asking whether I woke up the sudden urge to pull off some reckless prank that the rest of your simple-minded house calls a sign of bravery, then hardly. You simply have better pastries than the Hufflepuff table."

He turned to Rose and handed her a scroll of parchment he pulled out of his book bag accompanied with a significant look. "The Transfiguration notes from last night?"

"Ah, yes, thank you," Rose stumbled over her words in her excitement to finally get a good look at the parchment.

"Last night?" Lily looked confused. "What were you two doing then?"

"Oh, um…"

"There's a Transfiguration exam for sixth years this week," Adam replied without hesitation. "Rose and I were just studying for it last night. Right, Rose?"

"Yes, exactly," she added hastily.

Lily did not look particularly happy or convinced for that matter. "Look, there's Scorpius," she said suddenly, eyes trained at the Slytherin table. "Has he said anything to you recently?"

She gave an encouraging nudge to Rose, who stared at the blond head bent over a heavy tome that she didn't recognize from any assigned reading. Even from across the hall she could see the pallor of his face and heavy shadows beneath his eyes that revealed his sleeplessness.

"You know, I haven't actually seen him around the castle in a week or so," Lily continued, head tilted in thought. "Wonder what he could be up to. Hopefully not any retaliation on us."

Rose and Adam stayed silent, the former with her eyes trained on the Slytherin and the latter examining a particularly large blueberry muffin with interest.


	10. Chapter 10

"He's brilliant if he actually pulls this off. Actually he's brilliant for even attempting this." Adam leaned back and rubbed his eyes.

Rose didn't look up from the heavy tome that described the uses of the various ingredients on the list Adam had taken from Scorpius's room.

"No denial of his intelligence this time? I'm glad to see you're progressing to acceptance." Rose couldn't be certain since she refused to look up and engage him at this point, but she was fairly sure Adam was silently laughing at her.

"Look, pearl dust is used in all love potions and rose petals are commonly used too. It seems like it has the regular ingredients of love potions as the base and the more extreme ingredients are what give it the ability to create true love," she said excitedly, looking back and forth between the book, her notes, and the list of ingredients.

"We've been at this for three days. I think we've established that there's a definite connection between these ingredients and love potions." Adam yawned.

"He seemed really stressed about it when he asked me if I'd seen the paper it was all written on. He must be at a point in the brewing where there's a short time frame in between the steps."

Adam sat up, suddenly alert again. "Malfoy _asked_ you about the potion? You didn't mention it before."

Rose winced, having meant to keep quiet about that particular conversation. Adam rolled his eyes.

"Whatever, keep your little trysts with Romeo to yourself, Weasley. The potion itself takes about six months to be fully brewed from what I can tell based on his notes and I would guess that the shortest gap between instructions is…" he consulted the page for a moment with a concentrated frown. "About two days. But that's in the very early stages of the potion and I'm also totally guessing since everything is written in some form of shorthand. How far along do you think he actually is?"

"I have no idea."

The two of them sat there for a moment in silence, each contemplating what Scorpius was doing right then without his notes on the potion. At least that's what Rose was doing. Adam could have been dreaming of flying flobberworms for all she knew but she imagined he was thinking of the same topic for the sake of commiseration.

"So what do you plan on doing with this information?"

"What?" Adam's tone was a touch too casual for Rose's liking.

"I'm saying, what is the point of confirming this little hunch of yours. You must have some plan of action," he said, beginning to sound more impatient.

"Right, of course. I was going to confront Scorpius…"

"Yes?" Adam prompted.

"Tell him we know all about his super secret potion…"

"Still going strong, Weasley."

"And then I guess force him to let us in on his plan and the brewing?" she invented.

Adam was quiet for a moment but Rose could see his eyebrow twitching.

"That's it?" he said in a deceptively calm voice.

"Um, yeah?"

Adam groaned and dropped his head in his hands. Rose couldn't help thinking he was being a bit overdramatic. She had gotten them this far after all!

"We just found out that Malfoy is brewing a highly illegal potion that most of the Wizarding World doesn't believe even exists and all you want to do is to ask if we can shadow him and see his process? You sound like we're trying to work our way into an internship with a highly recommended healer; this is an impossibly rare potion we're talking about."

"Well, what else is there to do?" she demanded.

"Think of the opportunities that come with having a secret love potion! We could make so much money from selling it and probably receive a gold medal from the Potions Awarding Committee! Not to mention the blackmail we could have on Malfoy before that…" Adam trailed off with an excited look in his eyes.

"First of all," Rose hit his arm. "We didn't make the potion. If anyone is getting any profits or medals from PAC, it's him and not us. And what would we even blackmail him for?"

"I don't know. That's why you hold onto the information and wait for the right moment to come around and use it!"

"Oh, for the love of…" Rose rolled her eyes so hard it hurt. The two of them glared at each other in silence until Adam gathered his things and stood up.

"I'm not saying we need to do my thing and blackmail Malfoy," he said quietly, leveling her with a significant look. "And if you decide to do nothing at all, that's still a legitimate choice. But, Weasley, whatever it is, you better start figuring something out soon with where we're going to take this because we need to act quickly. You're running out of time."

* * *

"Scorpius!" Rose ran up to him after Transfiguration, figuring that this was her only chance to catch him since their lesson had been unexpectedly cut short. (Though the lesson was to simply turn their partner's hair a different color, Professor McGonagall had made the mistake of pairing two Slytherin girls from the same dorm who were currently in a feud over one stealing the other's clothes. The end result was one girl half-Transfigured as a pig with the other sporting tentacles all over her body. Needless to say, McGonagall had promptly canceled class.)

Scorpius waited for the stream of students leaving the classroom to pass them before continuing to walk, this time with Rose alongside him.

"What can I do for you this time, Weasley?"

"Remember before when you mentioned losing that paper with the instructions to your potion?"

Scorpius didn't look remotely surprised. "You realized that the hair potion you thought I had in my bathroom wasn't actually for hair?"

"Uh…" Rose wasn't expecting him to be so prepared. "Yeah, actually."

"I figured out you took it once you mentioned taking the hair routine. And since I've mentioned that I don't have one, it could only take you so long before realizing the same."

"Right. Well we've figured out what you're actually making," Rose said triumphantly, eager to finally throw Scorpius off-guard.

But again Scorpius didn't look particularly thrown. Must be the Slytherin in him that lets him keep such a solid poker face, Rose decided.

"And I'm assuming you need your instructions back for such a complicated potion," she tried again.

Now he just looked amused.

"Why don't you just go ahead and say it, Rose?"

Was he really so brazen as to talk about it in the open? Well, Rose certainly wasn't going shy away from the challenge he set.

"Portenovia," she said clearly, though not without a quick look around her to make sure they were alone. "You're trying to brew true love."

"An interesting conclusion," he answered noncommittally. Rose narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms.

"A correct conclusion."

Scorpius smiled at her like she was an endearing small child he was particularly fond of. Rose scowled back. Why couldn't she just have one dramatic moment in this? Was that really too much to ask?

"Aren't you going to ask for the ingredients and instructions back?" she hinted (okay, more like argued) once it was clear that he wasn't going to respond.

"Why don't you just tell me what you want in exchange for it," he said calmly.

"I just want to know what you're doing with it. Scorpius, you know how dangerous it is to be brewing this." Her voice wavered nervously. So yeah, she didn't go down the blackmail route Adam wanted. Sue her. Rose really didn't want to go about unearthing all of the secrets hidden in Malfoy Manor and extorting him for money. She just wanted to know this particular secret about this particular Malfoy.

"Your concern is appreciated, Rose. Really." To his credit, Scorpius did sound sincere. "But I'm afraid I'm going to need that paper back without answering your questions. For now at least. I trust you'll be good enough to return it soon."

"What are you even making it for?" Rose tried once more, not attempting to disguise her interest.

"Would you believe me if I said it was extra credit?" Scorpius gave her a wry smile.

"You got a 103 on the last potions exam," she responded dryly (and with only a hint of bitterness. Rose was proud of her growth). "So you'll understand if I don't think you're being fully honest right now."

He smiled apologetically but made no attempt to explain further.

"Maybe you should focus a little more on the reason you needed to steal that book from me in the first place." Scorpius threw her a wink so charming that Rose could quite easily ignore his not-so-subtle hint to leave his affairs alone. He really had a way with witches, she thought hazily.

In fact, his wink made Rose so discombobulated that she almost missed what he said next.

"After all, I imagine your own little project should be almost ready to take root."

And with one last smile, Scorpius walked away.

Rose remained smiling after him until his words hit her and she froze.

There was no way he could know her own 'research interests', as she'd decided to call it. None.

Could he?

* * *

"He actually _winked_ at you?" Lily squealed.

As usual, Lily picked up on all the wrong parts of the story. Although Rose herself couldn't exactly deny that she had thought about that wink an embarrassing number of times now.

(Not to mention his smile at the end, though that was for a different reason. Had it appeared particularly knowing? Smug? Was she just reading too deeply into it?

The last one was probably correct given her track record but Rose couldn't help but worry that Scorpius had placed a certain emphasis on the word 'root'.)

"Not. The point," she gritted out.

"Yeah, no, I got it." Lily waved her cousin's irritation off with a literal unconcerned wave of her hand. "He's doing some super illegal potion thingy, you're doing some super illegal plant thingy, we could all go to Azkaban, whatever. But what _kind_ of wink was it? Was it like a quick one after you make a joke with a friend or one with a lot of eye contact right after?"

"I don't know. It was a wink! I wasn't trying to analyze it!" Rose said, feeling flustered. Who knew there was so much to dissect behind a miniscule muscle movement? Now that she was actually telling the story out loud, she had the horrifying feeling that Scorpius had actually just had some sort of momentary muscle spasm in his eye that she had mistaken for a wink.

Oh Merlin. What if she had been that dazzled and he had just been trying to dislodge an eyelash?

Rose buried her head in her hands with a disheartened moan.

"Wow," Lily said dreamily. "If Scorpius Malfoy winked at me, I know what I'd be doing and it definitely wouldn't be my Herbology homework."

Rose looked up to see her send a pointed look at Rose's textbook laid out in between them. "Considering we're in the library and you have two essays and a Runes translation due this week, maybe-"

"What's going on?" Albus flopped down in a chair between the two girls, looking completely at ease despite the mountains of parchment he pulled out for his own assignments. Rose envied him.

"Albus!" Lily brightened up at the prospect of sharing Rose's latest encounter with Scorpius with someone who actually knew what was going on. She lowered her voice into a conspiratorial hush. "We were just discussing how Scorpius Malfoy winked at Rose!"

Rose had a feeling that this was probably the most impressed Lily was ever going to be with her in her life. All because Scorpius had winked at her. It was a good thing Albus was here as a voice of reason against Lily, not to mention that Rose could actually spend some time with one of her favorite cousins.

She felt a sudden pang of guilt as she realized how preoccupied she'd been the past few weeks to spend much time with her friends and family. Albus was more than a cousin, after all; he was a good friend. Perhaps she'd buy him extra Chocolate Frogs at the next Hogsmeade weekend to make up for her disappearing act.

"Are you sure he didn't just have something in his eye?"

Lily threw her quil at him while Rose dropped her head again. Then again, maybe Albus deserved some time on his own, she decided. And if his beloved Chocolate Frog card collection somehow went up in flames—well, who could blame her?

"What's wrong with Rose?" James and Fred had now apparently joined their library group.

"She's in crisis over Scorpius Malfoy," Lily informed them.

"I am not in crisis over him!"

"Scorpius Malfoy?" James looked at Rose accusingly. "You said you weren't one of his followers."

"I'm not!"

"Well, I certainly am," Lily scoffed. "It's like you haven't even seen him."

"He's the enemy! I forbid you to be one of his little fangirls, Lily. Right, Al?" James looked to his brother for support but Albus merely shrugged.

"Malfoy's an alright guy. We always work well together in Defense."

Both James and Rose turned to look at him in betrayal.

"Well, I don't care for him," James said with a sniff. "Lily, stay away. He's too old for you. And Rose—"

"He just gave me one wink. That's it," she emphasized. "We barely interact. And you just don't like him because he still beat you at quidditch last week even though he had to change all his plays in one day since you stole his strategy book."

James glared at her but Fred interrupted him before he could retaliate.

"He winked at you? Are you sure he doesn't just have a weird eye twitch?" Fred looked dubius.

It was official. Rose hated her cousins.

"I hate to be the one to say this but it looks like he might be winking at other girls too," Albus pointed out, nodding towards the entrance where Scorpius walked in with Annabell Zabini and several of his friends in tow. "Ow, why'd you punch me, Lily?"

"What an utterly insensitive way of putting it, Albus," Lily scowled with a sniff not unlike her eldest brother's a few moments ago.

"Cheer up, Rosie." Fred ruffled her hair soothingly. "I'm sure someone will, you know, wink at you someday, if you know what I mean."

Everyone at the table groaned and Rose kicked him under the table but that didn't deter Fred.

"It might not be this year or this year. You might even have to wait until you're in your forties, but surely even you—"

Rose cut him off with a wail and once again found herself with her head on the table. She found it vaguely worrying that within 20 minutes of being surrounded by family, she had fallen into that position no less than three times.

Equally worrying was that Scorpius Malfoy had apparently figured out her project. Well probably, given that she had no actual confirmation that he knew. Had she known at the beginning of the year that she, Rose Weasley, would be this close to figuring out the secrets of _Scorpius Malfoy_ of all people and vice versa, she wouldn't have believed it. They'd hardly interacted in their previous five years of school which was much more expected of them.

Rose would simply have to do a better job of hiding her project, she thought as she stared at Scorpius's table where he sat laughing with his friends. It didn't escape her that she'd been so concerned with figuring out Scorpius's secrets the past week that she hadn't focused on her own. Rose resolved to finally figure out how to open that book by the end of the week.

And then after, find out where Scorpius was brewing his Portenovia.


End file.
